Monday, FEBRUARY 23 – 4:00 PM (CT)
-First of all, congratulations to both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. While neither took home an Academy Award, both of them should be extremely proud for their performances in The Wrestler. Rourke is now Hollywood's comeback kid and it can be argued that Tomei is "back" as well. Many expected Rourke to win, but I had a bad feeling Sean Penn was going to get the nod. I am not a fan of Penn, but he is an amazing actor and did a great job in Milk. However, I feel Rourke deserved the award.
-Last week, WWE Raw earned its highest rating in a very long time. Of course, the company was very humble and quietly accepted the news. Just kidding; WWE actually put out a press release to trumpet the success of last week's show. Hey, I don't blame them at all; now is the time for the shows to garner interest and gain steam. The question is: can they continue their roll tonight?
When the WrestleMania card was rumored to have Edge vs. Triple H and John Cena vs. Randy Orton in the respective title matches, I was not that excited with those prospects. However, moving Hunter into a program with Orton, and involving Stephanie McMahon in the process, was a great creative decision. Jim Ross used the word "perfection" to describe the end of last week's show. The personal hatred Orton and Hunter have for each other, not to mention their history, makes for a damn good WrestleMania match.
Much of the intrigue to me not only lies in the obvious, but I wonder how the match will be booked. Orton is the top heel in the company right now and despite being made to look weak by Shane McMahon and his "IED," he still has a ridiculous amount of momentum heading into WrestleMania. Triple H is fighting for the honor of his wife, brother-in-law, and father-in-law. Triple H has to win, right? Not so fast.
Let's face it, Vince McMahon is an asshole. Stephanie can be a total bitch, and most people want Shane knocked out every time he dances out onto the stage. Sure, Triple H is defending his family, but do the fans really care? When Stephanie took the RKO, most people reacted by saying, "That was an awesome RKO!" There was no rage; there was no one calling for Orton's head. Sure, the storyline is playing out extremely well, but deep down, I would love to see Orton defeat Triple H for the title. H can get Orton later, as long as Orton remains the champion. The bottom line is: people will tune in tonight to see what Hunter does next. That is how to bring people in.
-Also tonight is a huge match between Shawn Michaels and JBL, with the winner earning the right to challenge The Undertaker at WrestleMania. I mentioned in a Buy or Sell column last week that this made no sense, because Taker is a Smackdown wrestler and to my knowledge, he or Vickie Guerrero did not give their consent for this match. So, Vickie inserted Vladimir Kozlov into the deal. Whoopity freaking doo.
I'll bottom line this: I am going to be pissed if the WrestleMania match is not Michaels vs. Taker in a one on one match. I would still be okay if JBL was inserted to make it a three way (I would not like it, but I could accept it). However, Kozlov belongs nowhere near this match. In the Member's Forum today, we talked about the possibility of a JBL vs. Kozlov one on one match at Mania. This would work for me, if JBL turned babyface. I think he could pull it off and it would definitely breathe some new life into his character. All in all, these two programs alone make Raw a very intriguing show tonight.
From PROWRESTLING.NET
WWE made the right decision to go with Randy Orton vs. Triple H; they will make the wrong decision if they go with anything except The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
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By By Rich Twilling
Feb 23, 2009 - 04:00 PM
Feb 23, 2009 - 04:00 PM
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